6.2.2.2 Optimization of the Strategy

A conflict resolution strategy may be optimized by combining the constituent tactics in a more effective manner. There are three different types of conflict resolution tactic:

Rule-defined (meaning the tactic relies only on the rule of the instantiation and on nothing else), including
priority
,
-priority
,
order
,
-order
,
specificity
and
-specificity

Static (meaning the tactic does not look into the slots of the matched objects which make up the instantiation), including
recency
and
-recency
, and

Dynamic (meaning the tactic may look into the objects making up the instantiation), including
mea
,
-mea
,
lex
and
-lex
.

KnowledgeWorks is best able to optimize rule-defined tactics and least able to optimize dynamic tactics. The optimizations for a particular type of tactic can only be applied if it is preceded only by tactics which can be optimized to the same degree (or better). For example, in the strategy
(recency priority)
, the tactic
priority
would only be optimized as a static tactic. In the strategy
(priority mea recency)
,
priority
can be optimized as a rule-defined tactic but
recency
will be treated as a dynamic tactic.